Marco Basso, President of Brazil Informa Global Exhibitions Division. Marco A. Basso, is President of Brazil, Informa Global Exhibitions Division, a company he’s been with the last 22 years. Discovered by a head hunter to begin Informa’s operations in the country, he knew nothing about the exhibition business, but had a background in congresses and seminars. Like most of us, he said, “The exhibition business is a very dynamic industry and gets into your blood pretty quickly – but you have to h [...]

Kerrin MacPhie, VisitBritain. While the UK is home to many of the world’s leading organisers, its event business at home is largely a domestic market. But in light of the country’s upcoming departure from the European Union, the role of exhibitions at home has become increasingly important. Take for example the Farnborough International Airshow, which runs this week – 37 weeks before the UK is scheduled to leave the European Union. “This is an incredibly exciting time for aerospace. Not only [...]

Corrado Peraboni, UFI President 2018. UFI has been present in Latin America for quite some time now – our first member from the region, Corferias, joined us back in 1956 and hosted the Global Congress in Bogota in 1975, and then again in 2014. We now have 42 members in the region from eight different countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador and Mexico. While this covers the mostimportant exhibition markets, there are still several countries missing, and we hope [...]

John Barrett , Executive director , Worldwide Cleaning Association ISSA The practice of using acquisitions and mergers to expand an organiser’s global presence is commonplace. But how about when an association tries to increase its influence using the same approach? Historically we've only seen a few private organisers from the US make their presence felt in the international marketplace. Diversified Communications did so in Europe with its health and seafood shows, and more recently EJ Krause [...]

I recently asked the following question on LinkedIn: Hi exhibition industry friends. Out of curiosity, what other attendee promotion/recruitment tools are you doing besides print, death by email and digital-based outreach? The reason I asked the question was two-fold: It seems many show organizers are over-dependent on emails to get the job done for recruiting quality visitors; and wanted to know what else industry colleagues are doing. A number of people answered, and there were over 1600 views [...]

“Disruption is a term that has been overused in the last 10 years. A lot of people talk about digital disruption, but to me the term often leads to people scratching their heads,” Eddie Choi told the audience at the UFI European Conference in Verona. Many of us will be in agreement. The subject is a staple of plenary halls at business conferences and while we all appreciate the opportunities that accompany destabilising the status quo, the only experience most of us will have of being truly disr [...]

Sophie Hackford, the keynote speaker Over 220 delegates from 35 countries gathered at the European Conference 2018 in Verona (Italy). Speakers and delegates discussed the challenge of how to future-proof exhibitions on the main conference stage and in breakout sessions over the course of two days. As one participant put it on Twitter: “To future-proof exhibitions, first listen to the future.” This was the theme behind the opening session with keynote speaker Sophie Hackford, Futurist and Resea [...]

We are consumers first and foremost, and as such, our attendees, exhibitors and stakeholders expect face-to-face, business-to-business events to be more like the experiences encountered at festivals, concerts, and other live events. Unfortunately, most exhibitions are not. Here are a few thoughts to modernize trade shows so they are more interactive and entertaining for attendees. They are based on ideas expressed at the recent XLIVE Esports Summit in Los Angeles, USA. For those of you who have [...]

'A view of Sao Paolo including exhibition venue Expo Center Norte' Provided you haven’t been running the country in the past 10 years, things are looking increasingly positive for the people of Brazil. On Tuesday, the president of the Central Bank of Brazil Ilan Goldfajn, said the country’s economy could expand beyond the otherwise “well-calibrated” 2.6 per cent forecasted for 2018. Speaking at an event in São Paulo, Goldfajn said that the nation’s recovery from the deepest recession in decade [...]

The UFI European Conference theme this year is Future Proof Exhibitions. Keynote speaker Francis Friedman, President of trade show consultants Time & Place Strategies plans to have a strategic conversation with delegates on Future Building and Future Profiting of Exhibitions. Friedman says, as we look to the future “Attendee acquisition will no longer be simply telling people they will get ‘excellent networking opportunities, see the latest products on the show floor, and get access to educ [...]